


Half a Conversation

by acecadet



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Bad Wolf, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Light Angst, Post-Episode: s02e13 Doomsday, Post-Episode: s03e08-09 Human Nature/Family of Blood, Romance, Sort Of, in a very passive way, the TARDIS is doing the comforting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:36:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24109102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acecadet/pseuds/acecadet
Summary: "'I drew pictures of you, Rose.'The Doctor lay in his bed, staring up at the starry ceiling. Planets, points of light, and the colored streaks of nebulas turned by, suspended at mid-translucency beneath the coral of his TARDIS room."The Doctor has a nighttime ritual. Set sometime not too long after Human Nature/Family of Blood.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	Half a Conversation

"I drew pictures of you, Rose."

The Doctor lay in his bed, staring up at the starry ceiling. Planets, points of light, and the colored streaks of nebulas turned by, suspended at mid-translucency amidst the coral of his TARDIS room. The Doctor lay in his undershirt beneath the covers. His hands were folded on his belly.

"My mind held up in a watch, and I still had dreams of everything. Daleks, Cybermen, the TARDIS, my old faces... and you. I kept a journal of them. I never thought before I tried it that that much would trickle through, but what do you know? It seems like a security issue. Martha almost woke something in me - well, the _me_ in me - when she showed and told me things from my life. Didn't, but almost; I could feel it stirring. I don't know if it's comforting or concerning that the boundary between my human self and my Time Lord self was that tenuous. But the dreams, they felt so real. It's the only time I can remember dreaming as me, as this me, about something other than the Time War. It was all our adventures. The Slitheen, everything. I wrote them down when I woke up so I'd remember."

He paused and took a deep breath in, letting the exhale release tension from his body.

"And I drew pictures. I drew pictures of you, Rose. I wish I could show you. You'd like that kind of thing. I have a pretty good eye with a pen, if I do say so myself." He trailed off and let his eyebrows climb up, relaxing out of a frown. "I drew your hair all floppy...." He gazed up at the holographic stars, watching their slow motion. Galaxies spun on the edges of the room, darker indigos than the pale blue of the local stars directly above him. In between, a pair of binary stars swung around each other, their gravities oscillating, moving together, always the same distance apart.

After a few long minutes, he shook his head slightly to clear it. "Anyway, I thought you'd like to see it. I'll show you if you like; might be able to plant it somewhere before the timelines diverge, though I'm not sure how I'd keep it from your younger self in this universe." He sighed. A sad smile crept into the corners of his lips. "I hope you're well." He whispered to himself, "You're gorgeous, you know."

The Doctor looked up at the stars for a few more moments before using one hand to settle the sheets more comfortably around himself while the other crept towards a dimmer on the coral strut at the side of his bed. His eyes crinkled slightly with emotion as he said to the stars, "Goodnight, Rose. I love you." He lowered the dimmer to its darkest setting and the blues faded into navy, indigos into blacks. All the celestial lights dimmed but did not go out. Their gentle motion continued, some on the edges fading downwards and others spinning in to take their place. As each new body moved into view, curling letters wrote and unwrote themselves, scribing the names of each one in light. One system stayed fixed below the apex of the Doctor's domed ceiling. A handful of planets orbited a neutron star, letters tracing between and linking them: Alpha Twelve, five slash nine slash theta, third affiliated Bad Wolf system, district ten.

The Doctor slept between soft white sheets, his breathing almost even under the faint light of the stars the TARDIS wrapped him in.


End file.
